Gloucester's Dave Attwood is promoted from the Saxons, along with Leicester's Geoff Parling, while Courtney Lawes should at least make the match-day squad because of his ability to play in the back row. The experienced Simon Shaw and Tom Palmer make up the second row options in a squad of 44.

Deacon has missed Leicester's last two games because of a bad back, but he is in contention to play in Leicester's Premiership semi-final against Bath on Sunday. Borthwick, who has not played since the middle of March, has not been officially ruled out for the rest of the season by Saracens, but England's medics have clearly passed judgement.

The England manager, Martin Johnson, did not name a replacement captain this morning. Lewis Moody, who took charge of the side in the final Six Nations game in Paris, is in the squad but a rival candidate, Tom Rees, was named in the Saxons 26 for the Churchill Cup after missing most of the season with a shoulder injury.

Nine uncapped players are included in the squad, two of whom, the Newcastle prop, Jon Golding, and the Leeds flanker, Hendre Fourie, have not been involved with the two senior squads this season. Golding may have been but for an untimely injury, and he will put pressure on Tim Payne along with David Flatman, while open side flanker has suddenly become a position of riches for Johnson with Rees and Saracens' Andy Saull off to the United States with the Saxons.

Fourie was a significant reason why Leeds avoided relegation, especially during the phase of the campaign when attacking teams were being regularly blown at the breakdown, but his prospects of a first cap will hinge on whether Johnson and his coaches tweak their tactical approach and pick Moody on the blind-side.

England increased the pace of their game in Paris. It may not have been enough to defeat France but it provided some optimism for the future after another campaign in which the men in white had largely been conservative. Johnson swore by both Borthwick and Deacon, two grafting second rows, but with pace out wide and mobility in the front row, England are equipped for a gear change.

Ben Foden and Chris Ashton showed against France that they had the temperament for Test match rugby, Dominic Waldouck is included after an impressive season in the Wasps' midfield and Toby Flood, who played at outside-half in Paris, revitalised Leicester in the second half of the season, along with the scrum-half, Ben Youngs.

Limited tactics are not likely to achieve much against Australia who are in a better place than they were when they arrived at Twickenham last November. Their head coach, Robbie Deans, was under pressure and only cemented his position after a resounding victory over Wales in Cardiff at the end of the tour.

Now the talk in Australia is whether Matt Giteau or Quade Cooper should play at outside-half with the other filling the inside-centre position. Australia have had a better Super 14 than in recent years: the Waratahs and the Brumbies are filling two of the four play-off positions with one round of matches to go while the Reds have an outside chance of making the top four and Western Force rallied after a poor start.

The Wallabies will be more confident than they were in the autumn, but so should England be. The Premiership has bloomed in the final months of the regular season with three of the four play-off clubs, Leicester, Saracens and Bath especially creative and resourceful, a contrast to the opening months when their rugby was an eyesore.

England have options behind the scrum, as the presence of the likes of Brad Barritt, Anthony Allen, Alex Goode, James Simpson-Daniel and Tom Varndell in the Saxons shows, and some real quality. What they have lacked in recent years is a complementary pack, one of the reasons why they have been as tactically variable as the weather, hot, or at least reasonably warm, one week, cold the next. They have lacked balance.

The summer tour gives England the opportunity to step up their game and they will not be under the same glare of publicity that they were in November and during the Six Nations. The football World Cup will hog attention, and while the men in white will never be able to fly under the radar, it is another England who will be in the limelight.

Moody deserves to retain the captaincy after Paris. England played in his image, giving it a go, and his public comments after the match were realistic rather than idealistic or hubristic. There is a youthful feel to England, Youngs and Joe Simpson have seen off Paul Hodgson and Harry Ellis, Dan Cole has eclipsed Julian White and Ashton's rise has suspended Paul Sackey's international career, but Johnson well knows that it is about substance as well as style.